Aurora, the Amish school and other rampages had one thing in common

When gunman Charles Roberts IV walked into this Amish school in Lancaster… (MONICA CABRERA, Morning…)

July 31, 2012|Paul Carpenter

The mysterious building at Lowry Air Force Base was surrounded by fortifications and barbed wire, with no-nonsense air police carrying machine guns and holding the leashes of ferocious German shepherds.

The base no longer exists and that building, previously known as the Big Black Hangar, is now an ice skating and hockey complex not far from the Aurora Century 16 movie theater.

When I attended a secret Air Force technical school in the Big Black Hangar, I thought Aurora, Colo., was among the most pleasant communities I had ever seen. But from now on, "Aurora" will evoke only terrible thoughts, as will "Columbine," or "Virginia Tech," or "an Amish school in Lancaster County."

The latest unspeakable massacre has stirred passionate talk about gun control and how to keep firearms out of the hands of nuts like James Holmes or, for that matter, out of the hands of everybody except government authorities.

That, I have argued before, would subvert the Bill of Rights and it would make us like Mexico, where rigid gun control has not inhibited gun-toting outlaws, while leaving law-abiding citizens defenseless.

On Saturday, The Morning Call ran a story about six congressional candidates being asked if there should be a ban on "assault weapons" in view of the rampage by Holmes, who, the story said, used "an AR-15 assault rifle" and other weapons.

Semantics is part of the problem here, and I'll get to that, but all of the candidates for theU.S. Senateand for two U.S. House seats in the Lehigh Valley region, except for one, opposed such a ban.

Nevertheless, there are almost hysterical demands for gun control, especially in news media commentary, in response to the massacres in Aurora and elsewhere. Confusion over which firearm is which may be contributing to some of that.

Holmes did not have an assault rifle. He had an AR-15, which is a semiautomatic weapon, meaning it fires one round with each separate pull of the trigger. Assault rifles can be switched from semiautomatic to fully automatic, which means they are machine guns, which have been illegal for civilians in America since the 1930s.

"Assault weapon" is a term concocted out of thin air by politicians, and the AR-15 was one of the "assault weapons" banned by a 1994 federal law, which expired in 2004.

How did they decide which weapons were assault weapons? Largely by their cosmetic appearance. An AR-15 looks like the M16, a standard military assault rifle.

Mechanically, however, an AR-15 and any other "assault weapon" covered by that 1994 law is essentially the same as virtually every handgun, except for revolvers, that you see carried by police officers or anyone else.

Meanwhile, nearly all of the worst gun tragedies of America in recent years had one thing in common. They occurred in places where law-abiding individuals were prohibited from having weapons. The Aurora theater was part of a chain that did not allow armed customers, even if they were licensed to carry concealed weapons.

The gunmen who went on those rampages were not totally crazy. They were rational enough to select places where they knew nobody would shoot back. If they really were crazy, we'd be hearing about their rampages inside police stations.

As for guns falling into the hands of bad people, a horrible example of that was the recent Fast and Furious scandal. In that case, it was federal law enforcement authorities who sold firearms — 2,500 of them — to criminals from Mexico, then lost track of nearly every weapon. Some of those weapons, the government admitted, were then used to murder hundreds of people.

Still, some people insist that only government authorities should be legally armed (a trait common to every tyranny in history).

The other day, a Bethlehem man sent me a note expressing concern over what he saw in the promotional material for Musikfest, which begins Friday with entertainment at dozens of venues all over his town. The "Official 'fest Rules" include a list of what is banned at Musikfest, such as "outside food or beverages" and "weapons of any kind."

Musikfest spokesman Curt Mosel said the rule against packing pistols is not really a rule, although weapons are always discouraged. He said weapons are officially banned only for "ticketed venues. ... When it's public space, we can't say what people can do on public property."

For gun control zealots, a ban against law-abiding citizens being able to defend themselves is comforting. For me, it is like sending an engraved invitation to James Holmes to come to specified areas where, as long as the police are out of sight, it is open season on the helpless.

For me, it is not necessary for many to be armed; it is only necessary that the nuts think there is a possibility, even a remote one, that somebody might be armed.

Based on what we have seen from Columbine to Aurora, that might be enough to make the nuts slither back into their holes to wait for better opportunities.